Whether they are right or wrong, the protests against mass tourism and overcrowding, which have been perceived as anti-tourist demonstrations across the world, in particular key source markets like the United Kingdom and Germany, have had a damaging impact on Mallorca’s image.
The Daily Telegraph has ranked Mallorca as “the most unwelcoming location in Europe for British tourists” which is not going to go down well with the Mallorcan tourist industry, not to mention the authorities as they embark on their ambitious attempt to combat mass tourism next summer.
The paper details all of the anti-mass tourism protests held this summer and also draws attention to the fact that people on the demonstrations were brandishing placards stating “tourists go home". The trouble with the protests is that while they have been aimed at the tourism model and policies of the Balearic government, not, in general at tourists, this is not how the demonstrations have been seen by the international media.
In early August, TUI warned that the Mallorca tourism protests should be taken seriously. In an interview with the German paper Bild am Sonntag, the CEO of TUI, Sebastian Ebel, said he could understand protests against mass tourism in Mallorca. Ebel stressed that the protests should be taken seriously, "because we would feel the same way". He observed that the protests are against "excessive" issues such as the increase in rents, the increase in housing prices and the volume of traffic.
But on the topic of traffic, on Wednesday morning it took an hour to drive from the airport to the centre of Palma and the vast majority of vehicles were not hire cars, it was gridlock all the way and this happens every morning and evening during the rush hours. Ebel added: "It is important to analyse what motivates people, how much tourism they want and how much they don't. Ultimately, it is the people who live there who should decide how much tourism they want." (He made much the same point as this at the start of March this year before the protests.)
So apart from tackling mass tourism, the Balearic government is going to have to also mount a damage limitation operation over the winter to smooth over the cracks opened up by the anti-tourism movement. And it is not just Mallorca, this summer Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera coordinated inter-island protests under the slogan ‘Let’s change course, let’s set limits to tourism’, to jointly confront the social, labour and ecological aspects of “devouring” tourism development, according to the environmental group GOB.